Fort Beaumont, southwestern Agrincourt
55 kilometres from the front
Weeks and weeks of artillery bombardments and air strikes had left the front lines scarred and scorched; casualties mounted on both sides, especially on the Casegenian side, but the hesitancy of the Agrincourtian War Cabinet to act on what had once been planned had caused the war to come to a stalemate. The plan, of course, was to lure the Casegenians further into Agrincourt, then assault from the flanks and cut them off - a classic pincer movement. However, it was scrapped after it was deemed too risky. This was regardless of the fact that the Agrincourtians had GHawkins, Neu Engollon and the Gauls on their side. The fact of the matter was, the Agrincourtians would have to act sooner or later, for even though the Casegnians were not winning, they had not yet given up. The war should have ended weeks ago and it should have had ended sooner rather than later.
The lack of confidence and inaction of the Prime Minister, Lord William Ainsworth, had caused significant outrage within the House of Commons. This outrage turned into open action, leading to several high-profile defections from the ruling party - the Agrincourtian Conservatives - to the opposition, The Liberal Labour Party. This culminated in a motion of confidence initiated by George J. Wilson, the leader of LLP, which was won by 459 votes to 200. A snap general election followed, with a voter turnout of 71% and a landslide victory for the LLP. Shortly after their election, the House of Commons passed an Act to allow the Chief of Staff of the Agrincourtian Armed Forces to plan and execute all operations against Casegene with free reign. Of course, Casegene wasn't their only problem.
Danger loomed over the north of Agrincourt, with recent conflict in Kamalbia, Marqueville and the Confederate deployment to Terra Azure numbering over fifty thousand men. Significant danger, but nothing could be done. However, the government had already begun mobilising additional territorial forces to amplify the northern border, as well as the whole coastline of Agrincourt. This would take time, of course, but with the recent arrival of GH, NEDM and Gaul forces, many units of the Agrincourtian Armed Forces were freed up and the pressure was off. For the time being.
Meanwhile at Fort Beaumount, the largest and the most important operating base in the southwest, Marines from the 3rd and 4th battalions of the 1st Marine Regiment were preparing to head out. They were to act as an assault force, acting under the direction of General William Anderson who was the current Chief of Staff of the Agrincourtian Armed Forces. They were also to act as replacements for returning combat troops of 2nd Infantry Brigade who had been out there for the past few weeks, taking more than thirty casualties. Agrincourtian casualties had mounted slowly, for the most part; or as slow as they can in a war of attrition. Casegenians were faring worse, a lot worse, with the highest estimate being up to four thousand dead, and several thousand wounded. Still, relentlessly, the Casegenians mounted attacks, shelled the border and they had no intention of surrendering any time soon.
General Anderson was a burly man, tall, with dark and greying hair. Despite his age of 62, he remained fit. Or as fit as a sixty-two year old can be. He had been the Chief of Staff for the Agrincourtian Armed Forces for the past two years, having previously served as the Commander, Joint Special Forces Command. His background was in Special Forces, having served with the Special Air Service and, before that, as a paratrooper in the Parachute Regiment. One could assume that it was because of these experiences that General Anderson was fit. It could also explain his war strategy which combined an adaptive defensive style of warfare with surprise special forces raids. Until now, the only thing stopping him from employing his forces as he saw fit, was the Parliament. His thoughts were disturbed by the arrival of his aide, a young Captain in the Army, who entered through the tent's flap.
The young Captain saluted, but was quickly dismissed and told to get on with it.
"Yes, sir. The generals are here."
"Ah, good. Lead them in."
He nodded once, leaving after a quick salute. He returned a few seconds later, with the Generals in tow. As they entered, Anderson stood and nodded to each as they came in.
"Good to finally meet you in person, gentlemen."
They all nodded once.
"Shall we get down to it?" Anderson asked.
"Indeed. May I begin?" General Trojan, of the GHawkins Armed Forces, begun.
"Go ahead, General.
"Thank you... very well. From what I have been told from my own intelligence personnel, is that the current situation resembles one that the GHawkins military has long anticipated to find itself in. Except that the enemy isn't who we thought it was... though even with that, we're not entirely sure..."
"Could you please elaborate on that?"
Damont, the Commander of Gaul forces, chimed in before General Trokan could say anymore. "I meant to talk to you more in depth about that too, General... eh... let me not derail your train of thought, ami..."
"I was going to get to that in a minute, but I guess I can do so now as well. General, you have some type of beamer I can use?"
General Scolatti, of Neu Engollon, dug into his pocket, fishing out a laser pointer. In response, General Trojan offered him a smile, shaking his head.
"I actually need to display some pictures we've taken a little while ago."
"Oh."
"Hah. Well... laser pointers are nice, but they can't project satellite imagery, can they?"
Scolatti shook his head. "I misunderstood your use of the word 'beamer', General, forgive me."
Trojan nodded once. "No problem. Thank you for the offer." After spotting a projector, along with a computer. He grabbed onto his suitcase as he took a few steps to it, setting the projector up and plugging the USB stick into the port. His face would turn rather serious then.
"Alright, what I am about to display is highly classified. Even I was only informed about these images less than forty-eight hours ago." He would press a button, displaying an image of a rather remote, almost abandoned airfield in the middle of a desert.
"We don't know the name of this airfield, but it belongs to the Casegenian air force. I have no doubt the Agrincourtian intelligence knows about it and they will most likely be able to tell me more about it than I can tell you... However, it's not the base itself I am interested in. What do you see gentlemen?"
General Damont smirked. "That our initial airstrikes did some good work?"
Trojan raised an eyebrow. "Actually, this field hasn't been touched yet by any ATO aircraft."
Damont, eager to clarify, shook his head. "By that I mean, that while we didn't strike this airfield per se.. but the lack of freely operating aircraft is telling.. they have less to go around, do you know what I mean?"
All nodded, and Anderson urged Trojan to continue.
"Well gentlemen, I wish I could tell you that was the reason... However, would you believe if I told you this is the same airfield, this picture taken eight hours earlier?" He would change the image once more, displaying a more recent one; it would display infrared imagery of the same airfield, at night, with one major difference. Transport aircraft, with their engines glowing, as well as transport trucks and men scattered about.
General Damont raised an eyebrow, as did the other two present. General Anderson knew the implications of this.
"Please explain, sir. What is the significance?"
"An airport, in the desert, in day-time not a living soul spotted, suddenly turns into a hub of activity at night, with aircraft not in the Casegenian inventory landing and unloading equipment and possibly personnel, from Gods know where, before disappearing and leaving without a trace before the break of dawn."
"I won't argue that General, but who confirmed these are not in the Casegenian inventory? I mean, in most respects, this would be normal resupply operations for a country at war...Understand, that I'm playing devil's advocate here. I'm not really that sceptical about what you're saying. We have air superiority, why would the Casegenians not take advantage of night cover to conduct such operations?" Was Scolatti's clear, objective point.
Trojan nodded once, undismayed. "General Scolatti, I understand your scepticism regarding the significance of this. However, this is one of Casegene's northernmost bases. The front, as we all know, is to the south. What practical use is there, to ship supplies that should be going south, to the north? Why unload supplies that far north, when the place these supplies were stashed, are further south and closer to the lines?" A brief pause... "I can compare that to wanting to drive from Neu Engollon to Gaul and taking a detour via the Dangish Empire.
Damont let out a brief sigh. "Ah...I see. Possibly they are planning for the future, when we may push back over their borders and they need to fortify?"
Trojan nodded once. "A possibility, indeed. Stashing some last ditch hold-out, perhaps even a continuity of government complex."
"I would like to get back to the point you made about these not being Casegenian aircraft," Scolatti urged.
"I was about to return to that as well."
"Was this GSA information?"
"You're looking at imagery from the GHawkins Space Command."
"Has this been shared with BGSE...and RIS and NESA for that matter?"
"Just a minute, General Damont. So..."
"I have been informed of this forty hours ago, or something like that. I do not know who knows about this and who doesn't. All I know, is that I had to inform you at the first opportunity."
Scolatti shook his head. "General, were you given a full analysis along with these photos? Considering their freshness."
"I am telling you everything I have been told about them. And what I was going to say is that this aircraft's engines..." -- he pointed to one of the IR shadows of a transport aircraft on the screen. -- "Are designed to have a big action radius. If the men with glasses are correct, these aircraft can fly to any base in Casegene, fly back to where they came from and then do it again for another three times. If not more."
Scolatti, along with the rest of the generals, nodded slowly. "Taking your assumption that they are not domestic, they would need to fly in either through the north, from the south, or less likely, through an unmonitored air corridor in Kamalbia. As they would most certainly have never overflown Agrincourtian or Marqueville airspace."
All agreed with this assumption.
Trojan added on to Scolatti's explanation. "Now, conservative estimates indicate they -may- reach central Kamalbia. However, on the other end of the scale, they might be able to reach as far as the Dangish Empire."
A silence hanged in the air for a moment.
"E... A... T... A. Is that what we're implying here?"
His question went unanswered as an uncomfortable silence was replaced with Scolatti's voice.
"I would like to bring something up that may relate to this. Which I have discussed with General Damont previously."
Anderson nodded slowly. "Go ahead, General Scolatti."
He nodded back. "As you may know, our contribution is mainly logistical to these operations, and that will only increase with the new year, which we can discuss later... both the NEDM and Gaul forces have had to divert a considerable amount of forces to protecting our supply lines. That is Agrincourtian, Gaulic, and NEDM supply lines... Commando raids have been a problem."
Anderson sighed heavily. "Indeed... my own subordinate officers have raised this issue before."
"Oui. To cut to the point, we don't think that the Casegenians can pull off that sophistication of infiltration on their own."
Scolatti nodded. "Although, to be fair, the enemy bodies recovered are consistent with Arabic or Levant racial makeup, in Casegenian uniforms."
"My analysts have informed me that the capacity of the unknown aircraft fall within the boundaries of the information we have of the commando raids. In other words, it is possible those aircraft are related to the raids... now I have taken the liberty of ordering my staff to begin assembling a plan on how to that airfield out of business as fast as possible. Of course, I have yet to receive information on the status of the planning."
"A cruise missile strike?" Damont chimed in.
"I will be sure that it's an option we look at. "
Scolatti was more sceptical. "Well...so, then they move to another airfield. Or use a strip of highway. That doesn't get to the root of the problem.."
"But it actually does something. General, say you are part of a clandestine operation. You are deep behind enemy lines, dressed up in another nation's uniform. You rely on your opponent not knowing where you are, who you are or where you are really from. And you know your country will most likely deny sending you if you are captured. And you wake up on one beautiful Sunday morning, ready to do some more raiding on unsuspecting convoys, only to be told your fall-back base, which nobody was supposed to know you used, was bombed while your false-flag operatives were in the process of unloading another batch of materiel. I would not know how to bring the message "Hey frakkers, we know you are here and we're coming for you" across any clearer." Trojan smiled as soon as he finished his statement. Anderson smirked in response and nodded in agreement.
"It does send a message."
"Well, yes. A message is sent. if I was well trained, I could rely on captured supplies, both domestic and military, as well as the Casegenians... So, while a clear message is sent, the practicality of it may be lost on the commandos, who can make do. They are already in country, General Trojan."
Anderson nodded once, then sighed. "Very true. Perhaps we can amplify the amount of security each convoy receives?"
"Well... I think we've gotten the problem fairly under control. Let me backtrack here. If this unknown benefactor of Casegene is determined, a strike on their supply craft and losing some operatives won't fully deter them. We need to look at cutting off the pipeline. That doesn't mean just militarily."
"If we can narrow down who it is, and if I may...there is a big gorilla in the room and I think his name is Billy C," General Scolatti continued,
"The risk was made the moment the first plane was sent, General Trojan. Further, that risk was amplified to them when they sent commandos to hit ATO lines."
"Yes. But, up to now they have elected to remain behind the curtains. For a reason, they don't want to actually fight us. Not in open combat, anyway, but they want to see us lose," Trojan pointed out. "Would, whoever it is - Billy C or otherwise, risk us finding out their identity and imposing sanctions against them or worse?"
"Indeed. However, by destroying their current base of operations, we let them know we are onto something. It might, at least temporarily, rob the commandos of their support. And I have no doubt they could make due."
"I get it. I do. It just seems like a band aid to a bigger wound."
General Anderson, whose silence was notable over the past few minutes, finally spoke. "What do you propose, General Scolatti?"
"Diplomatic pressure. But we need the proof, of course. What if it's the Riysians?"
General Anderson shook his head slowly. "Would you expect it to be them, General Scolatti? I certainly wouldn't."
Scolatti nodded. "I mean, they did send a whole bunch of troops to the border of Ar-Raha, didn't they?"
"Well, yes. That is true."
Trojan turned to both. "Let's slow down a bit. Right now, I am wondering if it should be a priority to know who this is. I would like to remind people here that Billy C almost invaded this same nation we are now trying to defend. If we uncover that this is again Billy C's doing, what stops him from pushing through with that plan this time?"
General Anderson agreed wholeheartedly. "I have been worried that if we do uncover the... third party, nothing would be in the way of them openly engaging in combat."
As did Scolatti. "Yes, we can squash some commandos, but, like General Trojan said, what about the mass of forces in Terra Azura right now? What if those were shipped south?"
"That is my worry exactly. If we openly uncover whoever it is. They can raise the curtain and we can possibly be looking at en masse reinforcements for Cassegene."
Damont shook his head slowly. "We -all- worry. I think the issue is to know who we're dealing with. Not necessarily to out them to the world community."
Trojan agreed. "That is the point I am trying to press."
"That is another reason why not all of our forces are located on the front lines."
"Right... so. If we do find that EATA or BC forces are actively helping Casegene, do we act on that? Or do we just incorporate it into strategy and hope they don't escalate?"
Trojan was the first to answer. "Incorporate it. If we know who it is, we can start looking more... focussed on things; Equipment, troops, things like that. I think I speak the mind of everyone here, we don't want to escalate like our big friends across the river have done, by bombing airfields of a sovereign nation within hours after a small skirmish."
Anderson was on the same side. "Mm.. Yes... I agree."
Scolatti, always the sceptic, chimed in with his thoughts. "That is the fear...We can't guarantee that they won't escalate, if it is who we think it is. No matter if we openly accuse them or not... who's to say they won't arbitrarily decide to send in heavier forces and do away with the subterfuge?"
Trojan had a counter-argument, however, "If, and that's a big if, this is who we think we are dealing with. It's the simple fact of their alliance that's holding them back. The Dangish Empire has no interest in war with my Republic and they have openly stated so."
Scolatti thought about that briefly, before speaking. "What if we could get a break or schism in the EATA to work for us? A friend from Foreign Affairs mentioned a similar outreach from the Dangish to them."
Trojan nodded. "That would be quite awesome. However, I am not going to let my Corps be destroyed by Confederacy forces to have that happen. I think that's a mindset we all have. Breaking EATA is a job for the politicians. I'll find out in due time if that means I'll be facing Confederacy forces or Dangish forces."
"But it is up to us to let them know that a speeded up timetable may aid in our future operations, were they to increase pressure on that split."
"Actually. I think we don't need to actually hit anyone to get that done."
Scolatti was puzzled. ""Hit?" You mean the airfield?"
Trojan shook his head. "I actually meant we don't have to fight at all. I do know the pictures I have shown you have also been seen by some other governments." - he paused briefly as another silence enveloped the room. - "This is not to be officially known by any of us."
Damont was first to respond. "Other governments that are not ATO affiliated?"
Trojan, eager to explain, didn't answer. Or he did, but rather indirectly. "Let's say the Seraphic Empire has opened its military airbases to the Republic. I officially don't know why, other than that they did. However, a bird might have happened to tell me they didn't really like the possibility of Billy C influencing a country so close to them. And that they might have been shown the same pictures you see. And that they might have drawn a similar conclusion..." He paused.
His pause was filled with Scolatti's voice. "Have they gone so far as to pledge military support? Not just bases, but actual air or troop support?"
Trojan shook his head once more. "That, I do not know. However, the GHawkins Air Force was allowed to refuel at their bases and use them to service their craft, before moving onto Agrincourt."
"Ah, I see."
Sensing his chance, Damont spoke with some eagerness. "I want us to hit that airfield. I want the message sent. This bears on Gaul's situation here. We are very concerned about the amount of EATA forces in Terra Azura, as well as meddling in Kamalbia, and now possibly Casegene. We do not want to lose Marqueville anytime soon. Of course, we also value our allies here in the area..."
"I wouldn't count on EATA being much of a problem in Kamalbia. GHawkins forces back in the nineties were already superior to everything modern-day EATA forces can call upon and yet we..." - he paused briefly, yet everyone was aware of what Trojan was speaking about. Especially Anderson. "Let's say we enjoyed the same level of overconfidence EATA forces appear to have nowadays and that that was our biggest mistake.
Damont nodded. "I understand what you're saying, General Trojan, and we are very sorry for the troubles from a couple decades back. But I think we are looking at sheer numbers here, were things to get out of control. COIN is a different war. Let me put it this way... as the CO of a theatre of operations, we have to have some political concerns, whether we like it or not..."
Trojan nodded in agreement. "That is true, as much as I hate politics."
"Yes. For my nation, that concern is that our interests are not threatened here... which is not the case at the moment. We are very alarmed at the mass of troops in Terra Azura and the past designs they have had here. In Kamalbia, on Agrincourt..."
"We share similar concerns."
Nod. "Ideally, Terra Azure would become demilitarised and return to a rational regime, Kamalbia would also become stabilised, with your help, and Casegene would see a regime change. Which we may be able to effect soon.
Trojan wasn't so sure. "Well, let us first tackle one problem - that of a stalemate."
"Yes, but they are all inter-related. This is chess, General, we need to see the moves ahead."
"Yes, however, we're currently talking about taking on a queen while we have yet to move our first pawn. Chess, at the start of a match, is a stalemate."
"But which pawn do we move? The one that gets us to break the deadlock, or the one that eases our eventual taking of the queen? Are they the same?"
"In my eyes, yes. Breaking this stalemate, either by destroying the Casegenian ability to project offensive power, or by punching through their lines, will allow our opponent to move a pawn..."
"Then let's move the pawn that smashes this airfield. I am still on board with that. Let's take it out. Send that message."
"Without unnecessary risk."
"That, is something my staff has already been sketching out for me. This war started with a surprise attack, followed by an attempt to rapidly dominate the battlefield by Casegene, correct?
"Correct, General Trojan."
"I suggest we give them a taste of their own medicine in that case. As that's what the GHawkins military does best."
After discussing the smaller, more specific details of the plan, they had all agreed on a clear plan of action. No details were to leave that tent, except for orders delivered to their subordinate officers through secure channels. They finished up the rest of the plan, distribution of logistics and combat troops, doing so within an hour. By the time they had finished talking, it was midday. At least five hours had passed since their conversation started. Scolatti notified the rest of the new government and, with it, the fact that they would have to leave by the end of year. Anderson knew that already. And so, they all left the tent to distribute the orders.